British Character Actors

[YoungWillz 21,044]

54 minutes ago, msc said:

 

DDP pick for my theme team, in fact.

 

I'll admit that I think Dalek Invasion of Earth is the only thing I've seen her in, off the top of my head.

I'd be too old to see her in Grange Hill. 

 

Ever Decreasing Circles - think I saw two minutes of it once and decided it was shite. Oldwillz used to watch it though.

[gcreptile 10,971]

Yes, QOs for Ann Davies, hallelujah: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-ann-davies-dead-doctor-26821571

[The Watcher 317]

On 27/04/2022 at 13:03, msc said:

 

DDP pick for my theme team, in fact.

 

I'll admit that I think Dalek Invasion of Earth is the only thing I've seen her in, off the top of my head.

Apart from Dr Who & Grange Hill she appeared in Eastenders. So likely to appear in various tributes. She also played Mrs Ripper [according to one obituary] in Ever Decreasing Circles. Her main contribution to that series must be suggesting to her husband, Richard Briers, that Peter Egan would be an ideal foil to Briers' character Martin Bryce who had OCD issues. Peter Egan never looked back & is still performing today as is Penelope Wilton who played Ann, the long-suffering wife of Martin Bryce.

 

[arghton 6,735]

Sir Ian McKellen healthy enough to pose for selfies on the streets of Lviv:

 

[markb4 902]

Surely Ian McKellen isn't considered a character actor, right?

[arghton 6,735]

15 minutes ago, markb4 said:

Surely Ian McKellen isn't considered a character actor, right?

I was not completely sure what thread to use, this was one he's been mentioned in a lot. I likely made a mistake there, but I was suprised to find he doesn't have his own thread here. Or atleast the search function didn't show one.

[YoungWillz 21,044]

Narrator of Button Moon, star turn in Allo Allo and many other comedy character roles Robin Parkinson dead: https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1608272/Robin-Parkinson-dead-Allo-Allo-Dads-army-aged-92-family-tribute-news-latest

 

Saw him in everything back in the day. Sad to see him go. 

[Leon Brittan 294]

3 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Narrator of Button Moon, star turn in Allo Allo and many other comedy character roles Robin Parkinson dead: https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1608272/Robin-Parkinson-dead-Allo-Allo-Dads-army-aged-92-family-tribute-news-latest

 

Saw him in everything back in the day. Sad to see him go. 

Grew up with button moon. Rest in peace Robin 

[Grimgrass 514]

12 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Narrator of Button Moon, star turn in Allo Allo and many other comedy character roles Robin Parkinson dead: https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1608272/Robin-Parkinson-dead-Allo-Allo-Dads-army-aged-92-family-tribute-news-latest

 

Saw him in everything back in the day. Sad to see him go. 

Shame to hear that, may he RIP. All three of 'Allo! 'Allo!'s Leclercs have gone now.

[Gisooo 3,334]

Pauline de Chalus (IMDb) a British former child actress, has been listed as "living", only 2 roles in cinema; Young Maggie in The Mill on the Floss (1936) and Polly in Action for Slander (1937)

Born in 1922 she will be almost 100 today but being 100% completely unknown I thought she could normally have died off the radar

 

Actually she was alive and died at 98 on 14th October 2021.

[Toast 16,140]

33 minutes ago, Gisooo said:

Pauline de Chalus (IMDb) a British former child actress, has been listed as "living", only 2 roles in cinema; Young Maggie in The Mill on the Floss (1936) and Polly in Action for Slander (1937)

Born in 1922 she will be almost 100 today but being 100% completely unknown I thought she could normally have died off the radar

 

Actually she was alive and died at 98 on 14th October 2021.

 

Sorry, a CV of two roles as a child doesn't qualify her for this thread.  Nowhere near.

[Ulitzer95 12,613]

On 10/05/2022 at 19:01, YoungWillz said:

Narrator of Button Moon, star turn in Allo Allo and many other comedy character roles Robin Parkinson dead: https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1608272/Robin-Parkinson-dead-Allo-Allo-Dads-army-aged-92-family-tribute-news-latest

 

Saw him in everything back in the day. Sad to see him go. 

Gets The Time treatment here.

Copy and pasted:
 

Spoiler

If Robin Parkinson had been superstitious, he might never have taken the role for which he was best known in the BBC sitcom ’Allo ’Allo!

When he was offered the part of Monsieur Ernest Leclerc in 1991, two actors had recently died in the role. In the early series of the show Jack Haig had played Monsieur Roger Leclerc, an elderly Resistance forger and habitué of the café run by Gorden Kaye’s René Artois, serving a clientele of German officers in occupied France while also running a safe-house for shot-down British airmen.

When Haig died in 1989, aged 76, the scriptwriters circumvented the inconvenience with a plot that involved Roger visiting his twin brother Ernest in prison and swapping places with him.

Derek Royle, a veteran of Brian Rix’s Whitehall farces, was brought in to play Monsieur Ernest and the two fictitious brothers became more or less indistinguishable. When Royle died six months after Haig, the producers asked Parkinson to assume the role. He accepted, though further misgivings that the show was cursed might have been harboured when he was told that shooting of his first series was delayed because two days after Royle had died, Kaye had suffered head injuries in a car crash that resulted in the partial loss of his memory.

Fortunately, he was a pragmatic actor and once Kaye had recovered, he made his debut a year later, playing Leclerc without further mishap until the show ended. He later reprised the role in the West End stage version of ’Allo ’Allo! and played Leclerc in 2007 in the one-off special The Return Of ’Allo ’Allo!
 

By the time he was cast as Monsieur Leclerc he was in his sixties and had been a fixture in some of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms for more than 20 years. His credits included Dad’s Army, Terry and June, The Young Ones and The Liver Birds;although they were mostly small parts, his face became familiar, even if viewers were unsure of his name. If sitcom became his forte, he was equally at home in straight roles in Crossroads, Softly, Softly and Z Cars. His first film role came in 1963, in Billy Liar, starring Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie, and was followed by The Family Way (1966), alongside John and Hayley Mills.

Children knew him by his voice as the narrator of the ITV puppets series Button Moon, in which all the characters were based on kitchen utensils. The show ran for more than 90 episodes between 1980 and 1988 as Parkinson recounted the adventures of Mr Spoon who, in each episode, travelled to Button Moon in his homemade rocket ship.

Christopher Robin Parkinson was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, in 1929, the son of Victoria and William Parkinson, an artist, whose talent his son inherited. He was educated at the King Henry VIII School, Coventry, where the punishment book records that he received six strokes of the cane for flicking ink at a master. He spent some of the war boarding in Somerset but watched the horrific bombing of Coventry when he was back in the countryside on the outskirts of the city. His National Service was spent with The Queen’s Royal Lancers in Egypt, where he played the cornet in the army band and was much affected by being called upon to play The Last Post for fallen comrades.

On his return to Coventry he worked in his father’s art studio and assisted him in window dressing department stores. His first passion was the theatre and he was an active member in two amateur dramatic troupes before he enrolled at the Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. His professional career began at the relatively late age of 28 when he landed a small part at Birmingham Rep in The Imperial Nightingale. When one of the leads was taken ill he stepped in for the rest of the run alongside Albert Finney.
 

After two years at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, he moved to London in 1961 where he worked at the Arts Theatre and settled in Teddington, Middlesex. He eventually clocked up more than 140 appearances on the small screen although the stage remained his first love.

Parkinson is survived by his wife Patricia (née Rogers), whom he married in 1956, and by their daughters Rebecca, a TV producer, and Charlotte, a child protection worker. A third daughter, Sarah, was married to the comedian Paul Merton until her death of cancer in 2003.

He was a lifelong supporter of Coventry City football club and Warwickshire county cricket club, as well as a more than decent golfer, who served as captain and president of the Stage Golfing Society and was always a convivial presence at the 19th hole.

Robin Parkinson, actor, was born on October 25, 1929. He died after a short illness on May 7, 2022, aged 92

 

[MariNisia 4,194]

On 17/02/2022 at 17:52, Gisooo said:

British actress Barbara Wallace (IMDb) at 98 is still active on films and television shows, her last credit was Rose Blossom on drama-crime series Riverdale

(2017- 2021)

 

 

Last Sunday on the new episode of "Riverdale":

 

 

[Toast 16,140]

6 hours ago, MariNisia said:

 

Last Sunday on the new episode of "Riverdale":

 

 

 

Remarkable, but I don't think she belongs in this thread either.  She may be British by birth, but her work seems to be predominantly in North America.

[Gisooo 3,334]

2 hours ago, Toast said:

 

Remarkable, but I don't think she belongs in this thread either.  She may be British by birth, but her work seems to be predominantly in North America.

Yes, she actually live in Vancouver, Canada.

[YoungWillz 21,044]

On 26/04/2022 at 00:53, Ulitzer95 said:

Actor Raymond Mason (IMDb) died just one day shy of his 98th birthday as per Times death notice (paywalled, but see spoiler).
 

  Reveal hidden contents

MASON Raymond, jobbing actor (his Tweedledee was a double triumph), died peacefully on 16th April 2022 after a very long run aged 97 years, 364 days. Will be much missed by sons Ben, Joe and Matt, and grandchildren Harry, Poppy and Archie.

Raymond Mason nearly 98 and no will found: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4070572

 

 

[Ulitzer95 12,613]

11 hours ago, MariNisia said:

 

Last Sunday on the new episode of "Riverdale":

 

 

There is no way that this woman is 98.

Her DOB online is clearly a mistake.

[msc 18,450]

14 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

There is no way that this woman is 98.

Her DOB online is clearly a mistake.

 

It's been wiped off the internet now, by looks of it, but when imdb was new, someone claimed that regular 60s actor George Pastell was born in 1886, which would make him early-70s in Tiger Bay, mid-70s in From Russia with Love, and 82 years old in Tomb of the Cybermen.

 

Pictured - 82 year old.

 

Despite this being bollocks by basic evidence (watch him scrambling nimbly down cliff faces in Dr Who, or running around in one of many 60s thrillers) some people believed this one for ages, until research pointed out he was actually born in 1923. So, he was actually 45, not 82, in the picture above. Who knew? 

 

We're not that far off the 15 year error in Jane Freeman's age either. Basically, yes, if she's 98, I'd be stunned.

[Ulitzer95 12,613]

4 minutes ago, msc said:

 

We're not that far off the 15 year error in Jane Freeman's age either. Basically, yes, if she's 98, I'd be stunned.

My hunch is she's 78.

[msc 18,450]

9 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

My hunch is she's 78.

 

My issue is for an allegedly acclaimed stage actor born in London, she must have a paper trail a mile long. But I'd never heard of her before this. 

 

My suspicions are her imdb page is an amalgamation of 2 or 3 actresses with the same name.

[Ulitzer95 12,613]

12 minutes ago, msc said:

 

My issue is for an allegedly acclaimed stage actor born in London, she must have a paper trail a mile long. But I'd never heard of her before this. 

 

My suspicions are her imdb page is an amalgamation of 2 or 3 actresses with the same name.

She's on Facebook.

Somebody could ask her...

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Assuming any character actors are looking in here to check on their mates they might be chuffed to know there's employment opportunities to spare with a massive relaunch and reboot of The Bill https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/18612569/the-bill-return-two-reboots/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1652901241

 

Has DCI Frank commented on this hereabouts?

[YoungWillz 21,044]

1 minute ago, maryportfuncity said:

Assuming any character actors are looking in here to check on their mates they might be chuffed to know there's employment opportunities to spare with a massive relaunch and reboot of The Bill https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/18612569/the-bill-return-two-reboots/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1652901241

 

Has DCI Frank commented on this hereabouts?

I hadn't realised when the Government said they would be employing more police officers that this is what they meant! 

[YoungWillz 21,044]

On 30/12/2021 at 01:52, Ulitzer95 said:

Hmmm.. Dad's Army actor Gordon Peters (wiki) appeared in the Croft and Perry podcast in October.

96 next year and complaining that his memory is going. Worth watching.

Gordon Peters reportedly dead: 

Sitcom legend so I'll be cross-posting.

 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0676449/

[Bibliogryphon 9,581]

On 15/07/2019 at 13:45, Bibliogryphon said:

Over the weekend I completed my watch of Gentleman Jack. Lots of potential DL candidates in action. DL favs Timothy West and Stephanie Cole as well as Gemma Jones and even Peter Davison setting out their stalls (the former playing bed ridden aunt) but on of the most interesting inclusions was Sylvia Sims who only appeared in one scene but was unrecognizable from her Ghost Light/Margaret Thatcher days. She is now 85.

It is interesting to note that her character, Mrs Rawston,  has been recast in Series 2 but it was filmed under Covid restriction conditions so this may have influenced her decision to participate.